Lovin' the Leaves

Emily has always loved to be outside. She is always trying to get into the arms of the person who is leaving the house so that they will take her with them. She also loves to go in her car seat (on the way there, but not always on the way back). She gets totally jealous every morning when we send Abbie off to school. There's Emily, still in her PJs, pointing at the car seat, emphatically saying, "Me, me, me."

Anyway, she does manage to get outside every day and loves going to the park to play with the leaves or to play in the sand. She loves digging in the sand so much and, with the cooler weather, her little hands will turn to blocks of ice, but she will still insist upon staying and digging.

As is common at 18 months (which is tomorrow for Emily), her language skills are just exploding. Sometimes it is almost overwhelming to me to watch because she repeats everything we say and sometimes it feels like she is acquiring a new word every minute. Also, she is starting to put words together, like "up go" and "I don't know." Apparently, something that she learned from me (according to Chad) is the word "sure", so if you ask her to do something, and she is actually willing to do it, she'll respond, "sure." Too cute.

P.S. I almost forgot. We captured the funniest Emily video the other night. Chad and I thought it was hysterical, but we are easily amused. See what you think: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW_zNe6V1Iw

Sisterly Love

The strong preferences continue. Last night I was reading to both girls in Emily's room. Then I asked Abbie to go brush her teeth while I put Emily in bed. Abbie left and Emily managed to grab another book. I agreed to read it to her, but she wouldn't come to me and was crying and upset. I asked her if she wanted Abbie to read the book with us, and she nodded. So, I asked Abbie to come back and the three of us started to settle back into the chair. Before I could even get settled, however, Emily was trying to pull me out of the seat. I asked her if she wanted Abbie to read the book to her and she nodded. So, I guess that was the plan all along - get rid of Mama and have a little sister time. So cute.

Emily really does look up to Abbie. She has started copying her. If Abbie is running through the house screaming, Emily will think it is the greatest thing ever and will run behind her screaming and laughing. This just thrills Abbie. Also, Abbie has discovered all the fun things that she can get Emily to do. Yesterday morning Abbie was thrilled that she was able to get Emily to say funny things. Abbie would say, "Emily, how do you say 'burp'?" and Emily would do her best to say "burp." Then Abbie would laugh and say, "Emily, how do you say 'booger'?" and Emily would do her best to say "booger" with Abbie just laughing hysterically. On and on it went.

They do have their moments when they torture each other, but for the most part they get along very well and Emily makes it a priority to give Abbie a kiss every day before she leaves for school and every night before bed. Even Mommy and Daddy don't get that level of preferential treatment.

Happy Halloween

What will Emily be for Halloween this year? A toddler, apparently! That's right, no costume this year.

I just assumed that we would dress Emily as a lamb because this is the costume that we had from when Abbie was this age (http://our-first-baby.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html). However, two problems emerged. First, I had forgotten that the costume was actually a bit big on Abbie when she was one. Emily is even smaller than Abbie was, so the costume would be huge on her.

Why wouldn't I be a good mom, and go buy a smaller costume, you ask? Well, that leads us to problem number two. Emily has developed very strong preferences about what she will and will not wear. If she decides that she doesn't want to be put into a costume, then no amount of coaxing is going to get it on her. She is very opinionated and stubborn about this. This past weekend, she dictated what she was willing to wear, and on Sunday, I never did get a shirt on her. She spent the first half of the day wandering around topless, and the second half of the day wearing a little sweatshirt that she finally decided would be acceptable.

Her preferred outfit lately has been a diaper, socks and shoes. She seems to think that is sufficient for leaving the house, and really can't understand why we insist on more. She is also getting very insistent on getting herself dressed and she gets really upset if anyone tries to help in even the slightest way. Yes, she is just barely 17 months, and already she is a full-blown two-year-old!

Me

In my last post I noted that Emily has been hesitant to say her own name. It seems, however, that she has come up with an interesting solution for tackling this tough word. She now refers to herself as "me". I think it is her shortened form of "Emily" or "Emmie", but it is ironic that it also happens to be the pronoun we use to describe ourselves. I don't think she realizes this at all, and it is funny that she has stumbled upon something to call herself that makes so much sense in the context of the English language. It is also funny to hear her wandering around the house declaring, "Me! Me! Me!"

Changes, changes, changes

Emily recently had her first visit with our new pediatrician. This 15-month check-up put official statistics to what we already know - Emily is a peanut that takes after her mom's side of the family. This has not changed. She is now 17.75 pounds (1st percentile), 28.75 inches long (6th percentile) and has a head circumference of 45 cm (22nd percentile). So, she continues to be very small, but the doctors continue not to be concerned, so neither are we.

She has been doing a great job with her walking and is all over the place these days. She has discovered that she can get into the lower kitchen cabinets, which are filled with Tupperware and plastic cups. She likes to drag out the little bowls and then leave them all over the house. Often, at night, I'll go through and pick up four or five bowls that have been strewn about.

Emily has also decide that she loves grapes and raisins and has been eating them all the time. Of course, it occurred to me that perhaps this is my doing. Perhaps it was the hint of wine in my breast milk that shaped this strong desire for grapes. Uh oh . . .

BIG NEWS - finally Emily has teeth! The two bottom, center teeth popped through within the past couple of weeks. They still haven't grown in very far, but they are there for sure and are mighty sharp.

We have also been amazed with Emily's growing vocabulary recently. She is trying out new words all the time. Her pronunciation is still very garbled, but I have distinctly heard her say: kid, star, outside, couch, house, bird, car, ball, more, cup, shoes, bye, eye, ear, hat, fish, dog, water, balloon. This is just to name a few. There are probably more that I can't remember and these are in addition to Mama and Dada. Interestingly, she is not as comfortable with Abbie's name (occasionally she'll say "Ab") or with her own name. I have only heard her try her own name once. I guess Emily must be a hard word to say.

Emily has also decided to warn us that the "terrible twos" are on their way. She is already showing very strong opinions about what she does or does not want to do and she will throw a fit if things don't go her way. On the bright side, though, she has been charming us with all sorts of flirting and playing and kisses. She also likes to tease us sometimes. There are days when you'll ask her for a kiss and extend your cheek to her and she'll gladly give you a kiss. There are other days when she gets a kick out of withholding kisses. You'll ask for a kiss and she'll smile and shake her head "no." Same goes for food. Sometimes she'll hold something out to feed to you. Then when you go for it, she'll quickly pop it in her own mouth and smile.

At Last!

Finally, a post! It is amazing how much time gets lost when you move your family across country (again) and start new jobs. Now that we are pretty well settled, hopefully I can get back to some more frequent posts.

(this is the "Really, Mom, you are totally interrupting my important work" look)

The big news around here is that Emily has been walking for weeks, but has always insisted on having a finger to hold onto as she moved around the room. She just refused to go anywhere without a safety net. This past weekend she finally decided that she was ready to strike out on her own. Now she is walking everywhere without requiring assistance. And, because she spent so much time practicing, she is actually moving pretty quickly. It is definitely strange to see because I had gotten so used to seeing her crawl everywhere. Of course, we have been doing lots of clapping and cheering for her and she is just so incredibly proud of herself. If only that feeling could be bottled . . . .

She has also started dancing lately. She has three moves that she likes to do. One is to bend her knees and bounce up and down. This is the most common. On special occasions she will twist from side to side, and on very rare occasions she will break out the hokey pokey fingers. I have no idea where she learned this, but it is pretty funny.

Emily has also gotten better at giving kisses. She used to just kiss her hand as a way to blow kisses to people. Now she has actually started kissing us. It isn't all the time, but it is happening more and more. Last Friday, for example, Abbie, Chad and I were all sitting on the couch and Emily was walking in front of us. All the sudden she decided to stop at each of us and kiss our legs. It was so cute.

Perhaps following in her sister's footsteps, or perhaps just being a girl, Emily has become interested in drawing lately. She has started climbing into the little chairs that Abbie got for Christmas last year and working on her coloring. She seems thrilled with the fact that crayons actually leave marks on the paper. So far she has been pretty good about finding paper to color on, although a couple of nights ago she also thought that the kitchen cabinets could use a little color. Fortunately, she really doesn't press that hard yet, so it didn't really leave any marks.

Matching Outfits

Abbie and Emily have a couple of matching outfits. They usually don't wear them at the same time, but last week, completely by accident, they ended up wearing the same thing. I was trying desperately to get a nice picture of them and it was like herding cats. I couldn't get either of them to hold still, look at the camera, etc. This is the best shot that I could get and it is actually just such a goofy, silly photo that I really like it. I have no idea what the two of them were screaming about, but it just cracks me up to look at their little faces.

Emily continues to be an absolute joy. Very agreeable and easy to deal with. She enjoys being outside and has become accustomed to morning walks after breakfast. There is a dog that lives a few doors down that she likes to visit. She also likes to go to the park and gets really excited about the swings and seeing the other kids. We are still working on getting her off rice cereal and on to 100% table foods. Also, we are trying to get her used to cow's milk. She will drink a few sips of it, but then pushes it away. I hope that if I just keep offering it, she will get to a point where she actually likes it. Emily likes to do lots of walking while holding onto a push toy or someone's fingers, but still doesn't want to walk on her own. She is still working on her words, and tries to say lots of stuff, but most of it is still pretty undecipherable. She still makes her wishes known, though, and does lots of pointing and reaching for what she needs.

And the results are in!

Emily finally had her 12 month check-up yesterday. She is doing great, but she is definitely a peanut. She has actually fallen in her height and weight percentiles, but her head growth is holding steady. She currently weighs 17.5 pounds (5th - 10th percentile), is 27.25 inches long (5th - 10th percentile), and has a head circumference of 18 inches (50th percentile). The doctor wasn't concerned about the decrease in her height and weight percentiles because they are still proportionate to each other and because she claims that it is common for growth to slow around the 1 year mark. I guess this explains, however, why some of Emily's sleepers that she wears regularly are still 6-9 month size!

 (Gratuitous photo of Emily "helping" with folding the laundry)

Emily is still working on her walking, and I think that she is getting more confident on her feet, but it is still manifesting in just a few occasional baby steps at a time. Definitely not full-blown walking yet. Also, in the past week or so her attitude towards food seems to have shifted. Whereas before she was perfectly content with her baby food, and seemed indifferent to "big people food", now she is very interested in what we are eating and definitely more open to trying some of whatever it is. We have developed a routine in the morning where she helps me eat my bagel or my toast and she is getting pretty aggressive with it. She always points to it and I'll say " Mama's bagel" so then she'll try to ask for it by saying "ma ma ma ma" all the while crawling all over me and trying to steal it out from under me. Now, if only we could get her to take such an interest in proteins we'd be all set. She loves her carbs, is OK with her fruits and veggies, but will gladly drop any meat, egg, or fish on the floor without even trying it.

Happy 1st Birthday Emily!

Yes, our little baby turned one year old on Friday. Of course, she had no clue what was going on. We got her some balloons and a little cake that was shaped like a ladybug and covered with red frosting and accented with black frosting spots. We had to wait until Saturday to celebrate, though. She missed her afternoon nap on Friday and melted down pretty early. Poor thing. When we finally did celebrate she acted as though she was scared of the ladybug cake. Every time we brought it close to her she started to cry. She was mildly interested in the frosting and had a couple of tastes, but was more into playing with the cake than eating it:

http://youtu.be/9ZToWiCZBAc

She absolutely loved her balloons, however. She is still pointing to them and saying "ba ba", which is her word for balloon (and ball for that matter).

Saturday was also a big day in that Emily actually took two steps all on her own. She didn't even seem aware that she did it. Now that I know that she can, though, I am more actively trying to give her opportunities to practice taking steps. It seems like two is still the max, but we'll keep working on it. For now, she gets around really well with the infamous crawl, which I finally managed to capture on film:

http://youtu.be/F6t_PpF0DNg

Maxed out

I think that Emily has completely maxed out - there's no way she can get any cuter than she has been lately. Her personality has just exploded. She has a great sense of humor, loves to "talk" on the phone, is understanding words in both Spanish and English, and has started testing out some words of her own. Here is a video of her being all cute and cuddly last Saturday morning:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4zuFgnHziA

She has been so much fun to play with. She will scream and laugh and crawl around as we chase her. Also, she has started to chase us if we get down and crawl around on the floor. The other morning at breakfast she started feeding me Cheerios one by one with her messy little fingers. Most of the time she will point to tell us what she wants, but she is also working on using her words. Of course, at this point the word for Bjorn is "br" and the word for bunny is "br" and the word for anything else that starts with B is "br". Same goes for the other consonants, "ca" can mean pretty much anything that starts with a C. It is nice to see her making these associations, though. She is also at an age where she is starting to pick up sign language. I taught her the sign for "more" this past weekend. Now we are working on getting her to understand what the word "more" actually means. While Emily's 1st birthday is rapidly approaching, her ability to walk is still a ways off. She is consistently standing and balancing on her own now, but the idea of putting one foot in front of the other hasn't even crossed her mind yet. The other milestone that hasn't happened yet is the first tooth - almost 12 months old and not a single tooth! If she is anything like her mommy it'll be another 6 months before we see those pearly whites!

Kickin' Back

Our mellow little baby seems to enjoy putting her feet up and relaxing while in her high chair. She gets herself into this position and then slowly sinks down farther and farther until I have to reach in, pull her up, and "reset" her. She is so funny about it. The other day she was in this position and then decided that she wanted to reach for something in front of her. Instead of putting her feet down and sitting up, she decided to just reach between her feet, effectively folding herself in half. Then she sat there wondering why it was so hard to get whatever it was that she was after. Silly girl.

Also, I think that I am slowly starting to hear the beginnings of actual words out of Emily. The other day I knew that she wanted me to lift her up onto the couch and I swear that she said "up". Then, while playing in Abbie's kitchen I heard her say "a boo". When I turned to look at her I saw that she was reaching for a baby bottle that was in the fridge. Coincidence or does "a boo" translate into "a bottle"? Who knows.

Cruising

Emily has been actively cruising around the house lately. She is really good at understanding that she needs to hang onto something in order to move from place to place. She is also getting better at balancing without hanging onto anything. It only lasts for a few seconds at a time, but even a couple weeks ago it would have been unthinkable. One of the best places to put her is in Abbie's play kitchen. There is counter on three sides and Emily is content to "walk" from counter-to-counter and explore as she goes. It just works out really well because there is so much safe, plastic stuff for her to get into and so much counter for her to hang onto.

When there is no furniture to cruise on, Emily has firmly established her signature crawl. She no longer complains about it and has started to pick up speed. It is a distinctive style - two hands, left foot, and right knee. The foot goes forward and then the knee gets dragged along behind it. It is really cute to watch.

Movement

Emily has really become a flurry of activity over the past week. Last weekend she started a little bit of official crawling. Since then the crawling has become more constant, but it is still something that she doesn't seem to enjoy. There is lots of whining and complaining that accompanies it. Also, it is not traditional, plain vanilla crawling. Instead, it is a bit lopsided and interspersed with little bunny hops, but she manages to get around.

Also, over the course of the past week, she started pulling herself up on things (her crib, the tub, and the footstool) without any help. Also, I observed a little bit of cruising earlier this week as she walked along while holding onto the footstool. I don't think she ever realized that she was doing it. This sort of activity is something that she enjoys much more than the crawling. Anything that involves standing has always been her preference.

Not only do her arms and legs seem to be moving, but it also appears as if her teeth may be moving. I think that I see white at the front of her upper gums, so I think that a couple of upper teeth may soon make an appearance. She was a bit crabby yesterday, potentially due to teething pain, but other than that there haven't been any other symptoms.

Emily is also continuing to develop her other skills. She has added some ma ma ma's to her vocabulary, but so far we don't have conclusive proof that she associates this with me. Also, she has added pointing to her gestures. She learned this from Nancy, who often points to cars, etc. So, today at lunch Emily was pointing out things of interest to me. So cute.

9 Month Check-up

Emily had her 9-month check-up today. She is now 16 pounds, 13 ounces (17th percentile), 27 inches long (32nd percentile), and her head is 44 cm (52nd percentile). Basically, the doctor is happy with her growth rate. Although she is a peanut, her percentages are holding relatively steady, which is the important part.

Emily has decided that she needs to add a few more tricks to her repertoire. So, she has started babbling with actual consonant sounds like "Ba Ba" and "Da Da". Also, she is trying to make kissing noises by smacking her lips together. Her gestures now include lots of waiving and nodding her head "yes" in addition to "no".

As for her gross motor skills, she is trying to pull herself up on things, but needs a little assistance. She still isn't crawling yet, but she is getting closer every day. She can get her knees underneath her and rock a bit. She is also often in a push-up position to see if she can move that way, but of course that is even harder than hands and knees crawling, so it usually ends in frustration pretty quickly. When she is on her belly she will pivot herself around in a circle and also use her hands to push herself backwards.

Sisters

Adorable photos of both girls from this morning. Abbie really does care for her sister and Emily really does look up to her big sis.

Emily is just so adorable (as babies this age tend to be). She is really great with her fine motor skills. She waves all the time and also has started to clap, which is really funny because she brings her hands together but no sound comes out. She is also using her fine motor skills to chase after Cheerios. She loves them and works very hard to get them into her mouth. She is getting better and better at it. Also, she is desperate to move, but has no idea how to crawl. The desire to be more active is definitely there, though. As for noises, she is big into screaming, growling, laughing, vibrating her lips together in a brbrbrbr sound, and sticking her tongue out and blowing raspberries. We got some cute video of her the other night in which she showcases some of these talents. See below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2felleVxEY

Firsts

Emily has been struggling with her first cold over the past week. Fortunately, it has been really mild.  Really it just amounts to a stuffy nose.  Occasionally we spray some saline up it to help clear it out, but most of the time it is just a minor annoyance for her.  Not unlike her hair, which more often than not becomes an annoyance by hanging in her eyes.  We often try to clip it back for her, but it isn't always successful.

We have been presenting Emily with more big-person foods lately.  She usually half chokes on them, but also seems to really enjoy them.  Below she is going to town on a slice of mango; another first for her this week and probably her favorite food to date.  She just couldn't get enough of it this past weekend.  She is also enjoying apple slices and has actually started eating them, rather than just sucking on them.  Tonight we gave her a slice of avocado, but she really just had fun smooshing it into a slimy mess and didn't seem too interested in actually eating it.

Other than these new experiences, life is pretty standard.  Emily has certain things that she really loves and gets all excited about, which is always fun to see.  She still loves the Bjorn, of course.  She also has started to really enjoy going to the park.  The grass is exciting for her and she seems to enjoy watching the big kids play.  She also really loves tub time.  As with every kid, the water is a big hit, but she also loves it after the tub when I rub lotion all over her.  I guess I can't blame her.  Not many people tend to pass up full body massages.

Fun Girl

Emily often appears so serious in photos, but she really does have lots of times when she is laughing and playing with us, so I tried to capture a few different expressions.  She knows that Chad will laugh and play with her and she often tries to get him going.  Her goal is to get him to make silly faces or noises.  This just makes her scream and laugh like crazy.

She is really coming along with her sitting, but still only does it on her schedule.  If she wants to stand, no amount of coaxing can get her to bend those legs!  This new toy (below) that we picked up at Target last weekend has really held her interest and she is willing to sit and play with it for long periods of time.

She definitely wants to lunge forward and chase after stuff, but there is just no upper body strength at all.  I often put her into a crawling position, just to see what will happen, but it just results in an immediate belly flop.

She is up to three times a day now with her cereal, but really could care less about eating any other foods, despite the fact that we present them at every meal.  Even things that seem bland and pleasant to me will sometimes make her shudder when you put them in her mouth.  Such drama. 

I decided that maybe she would be more interested if she were able to feed herself, so I put a Cheerio on her tray this morning to see what would happen.  The result?  Nada.  She still can't do a pincer grasp with her thumb and finger, so she wasn't even able to pick the thing up.  It's just as well because she probably would have choked on it anyway.  I also gave her some water in a sippy cup that didn't have any plug in place, so the water was coming out pretty easily.  I think that she thought it was a giant chew toy.  She just gnawed on the spout.  Every now and then she would get some water in her mouth and she would get this really surprised and entertained look on her face, but it never translated into her actually trying to drink the water.  Funny baby.